Samuel Gawith Grousemoor

Yummy yummy stuff this Grousemoor! At first I was put off and punished it by ball jarring it and forgetting I had it for 6 months. After the aging the topping has subsided just a little but enough to make it smoke able. Now after having smoked half a tin I can say this is a delicious Virginia blend with a lemony grassy topping that is actually very refreshing. Even chuffing like a train I didn't get much bite and the nicotine content is very minimal. The topping is one that when you get the acquired taste for it, it becomes addicting!! I find during the day I crave the aroma and taste of Grousemoor, a very intriguing blend. If you don't like it at first, ball jar a tin and come back after 6 months, it will be a totally different beast altogether. I was initially scared reading the reviews that Grousemoor was like Dark Scented Flake or Cannon Plug or 1792 (all very stinky, very tasty, Lakeland blends) but alas Grousemoor is just unusual and has no equivalent. Just picture its 200 years ago, you are hunting or hiking in a sunny but cool Autumn field, a place without cars or planes or cell phones, internet and all that other crap we have now and you light your pipe enjoying the dogs at your feet and the sights and sounds of nature. You can really enjoy taking a trip to the past with Grousemoor, its such a fun smoke!! I could see this being someone's daily smoke as its a no bite Virginia with a nice room note but I prefer a larger Nic hit and a dry Burley but I could smoke this daily without complaint.

What devilry is this? People actually enjoy smoking this absurd concotion? From wence did it come? Who, apart from the most insane scientist from the most unintelligebly absurd multiverses from rick & morty would think off making this hellish blend? People enjoy this? Do those people also enjoy eating pure soap? Perhaps they make little plates with their favourite soaps and eat them on crackers, like normal people do with cheese.

All off these comparisons off lakelands to soap was far more accurate than I could've possibly imagined. It even had the same bitter aftertaste. If there is great Virginia beneath this topping than there will never be any way for anyone to know.

Or so I thought.

This original impression thankfully did not persuade me to throw it away. I kept the tobacco in a jar. This is Samuel Gawith, my most trusted tobacco companion. They're the creators off the perfect English Blend, skiff mixture. The crestors off the only tolerable cherry blend I've ever smoked. 1792. Black XX. Their blends are not to be tossed.

Perhaps I could dilute it with other tobacco to make it smokeable, or make a potpurri out of it. The topping had an interesting citrusy aspect that I could see working as a bright VA enhancing flavour. The room note was mesmerizing.

I tried it again in a few weeks. God awful, I thought. I didn't dry it out properly. I was smoking bitter steam carrying soap flavour. Tobacco was completely subdued and impossible to discern.

Then is when I decided to dry it out - COMPLETELY. I left it out on plates for several days and put silica gel bags in the tobacco (they suck up moisture).

After 3 days I tried smoking this ridicolously dry tobacco. This was like, fall apart at the slightest touch dry. The pack was essentially a gravity pack as the slightest touch with the tamper would make the tobacco crumble. I expected the smoke to be harsher than the worlds worst cigarette. Any other expectation from tobacco this dry would be unreasonable. This was merely a test to see how much off the topping had remained.

To my great surprise, what revealed itself was the most wonderful bright VA I had ever had the pleasure off smoking. VA this dry should not be able to taste this rich, sweet and wonderful! Citrusy sweetness at the core off the flavour, mmm.... Sublime. And the topping... the distinctive lemongrass taste and aroma was there, but the soapy bitterness was gone. It was now a perfect condinement to the natural, tangy, citrus VA taste previously subdued.

I was now suddenly craving the taste off that lemongrass topping.

I immediately ordered a new tin. Tried it fresh. Almost as terrible as I remembered. I did the same drying out process, but a bit shorter and without silica gel.

It is now sublime, god-like. The topping perfectly accentuates the yummiest notes off the VA.

After it had been in it's jar with some 65% boveda baga to rehydrate, it was even better. But I still recommend this to be a dryer smoke than most, imo dry grousemoor improves the balance between the topping and natural tobacco flavour. If it is as moist as you'd usually want tobacco to be, the topping goes in a more soapy direction and the natural VA taste seems to get more subdued... My guess is that it has something to do with how steam from the moisture in the tobacco carries the flavours.

NOT recommended to smoke straight out off the tin. Either do what I did or dillute it with another bright VA. Although I doubt you will be able to find another bright VA as wonderful as this.

Had it arrived in the dried out state it would be an easy 4 stars.

On first opening the tin I got suckered in by the strong flavoring, started craving it, and quickly got burnt out by how strong and omni-present it is. Difficult to describe the flavoring itself- something in common with lemongrass, sure. Likely to inspire a love-hate reaction with most.

So, it sat on the shelf for a while, and the next time I smoked it, thanks to the poor seals on Sam Gawith tins once opened, it had dried out to bone-dry status, although it didn't become powdery.

OK, so once the flavoring has evaporated and the real tobacco flavor is exposed, Grousemoor is revealed to be superb! The tobacco itself is some of the best golden virginia I have smoked. Buttery and delicious. The flavoring is still there, but no longer overwhelming, so one can enjoy what it brings without getting kicked in the teeth by it.

Although I generally prefer to smoke SG tobaccos right from the tin (have learned the tricks to deal with high moisture content I suppose), this one is best smoked very dry. I get the feeling that back in the day when it was first created, it was likely smoked this way. Not man enough I guess to deal with the flavoring if not dried out completely, and besides, why miss out on the wonderful tobak flavor that it obscures?

Just a great smoke for springtime/early summer. Two stars at wet or normal moisture levels, four stars when bone-dry, so I will give it three as a compromise. Not something I smoke every day, but I love it. So nice to experience these traditional flavors on a base of the best.

S.Gawiths aromatic blends are not typical and common and this one is not an exception.once the tin breaks a tense aroma combined from some citruses,sweet lakeland notes and orange hints comes out.the nice ribbon cut bright virginias are smooth and a bit moist.i prefer not to dry it out because packing and lighting is easy.while smoking as the aroma promises the virginias are subtlimated by the topping though they offer some grass and citruses.the topping is present till the end being sweet with lemon and orange notes.some times a soapy flavour is detected.generally the flavours taste nice though not very natural.burns medium hot and quick with some moisture being created at the end of the bowl and the filter.the nicotine level is almost medium and the aftertaste it s sweet.the room note is pleasant.this blend can ghost easilly a pipe.generally i consider it to be a soft lakeland style blend that can be an all day smoke and satisfy a smoker that looks for a different style in aromatic blends

Having enjoyed Grousemoor Plug, I set out on the long journey to find a rarely available tin of Grousemoor Mixture. Having finally found a couple of tins I set off to make the inevitable comparison between the plug and the mixture. The mixture has a much stronger floral scent in the pouch, typical of most Lakeland aromatics. While the plug has somewhat of a “baked cookie” taste with the florals further in the background, the mixture shares the similar taste of cookies with a much more forward floral scent. (Yes, I know it sounds a little silly and I seldom compare tobacco to food). The tobacco found in most Lakeland style blends is of high quality and it really comes down to whether or not the smoker finds the casing appealing, so Grousemoor will likely be a love or hate blend for most pipers. Be sure to have a pipe set aside for Grousemoor because it will leave a ghost in your briar. For me, it won't be an everyday blend, but I will keep some around as a nice change of pace. Recommended.

This blend is highly unusual. The leaf is extraordinarily bright. The smoke is very light and somehow, this blend manages to turn "soapy flowers"-flavouring into a good thing.

In all seriousness though, this blend is interesting. There's some mellow fresh grass from the leaf itself, and the topping provides a gentle, fresh, floral flavour. It can be a bit soapy, but i find that it doesn't detract much from the experience.

It'll need some drying and some relights, but largely, it's a well behaved blend that burns nice and clean. You're going to want to smoke this one slowly, though. It doesn't seem to bite, but it loses quite a bit of it's flavour if smoked too fast and hot.

I quite like it. Also, bonus points for the nice tin art.

My experience with Grousemoor is quite strange to say the least, although in the end I will say that it's generally positive.

I was intrigued by the strange, seductive smell of the tobacco right out the packet. To me it's really one of a kind - fresh, almost a bit sour, similar to some exotic flowers and citrus fruit. It was quite dry and I had to refresh it for a few hours before smoking. I packed a corncob I bought just to try Grousemoor, afraid of potentially ghosting my old aromatic-dedicated pipe. The experience was interesting - the aroma is definitely of lemongrass and citrus, with slight hints of vanilla. It bites easily, which is a small minus, but if smoked carefully it can be very relaxing and enchanting, as it is quite different from smoking your average aromatic. After that I tried smoking it in my filtered briar pipe - this drastically worsened the taste, cut out most of the aroma and made the smoking dull and frustrating, as my every attempt at squeezing at least a bit of the distinct lemongrass aroma out was met by an awful tonge bite. I wouldn't recommend smoking it with a filter.

I will most likely come back to this blend from time to time, but I don't think I will ever fully love it like I do my Amphora aromatics. Grousemoor is an oddity at least worth trying.

The tobacco comes as a fairly uniform tan. It is mostly a medium chopped ribbon with some fish flake bits. Pouch note is a sweet with some citrus and earth. It came at a good level of hydration for me in the ziplock baggie sample from a friend. I smoked it as delivered.

Smoked, this is fairly mild in terms of strength. There is a little hay from the Virginias, I get a hint of citrus and sweet with a little floral and perfume in the topping. I think I found the topping a little milder than the reputation would suggest. The smoke was pleasant. It burned a little fast for me. The flavor had a tart edge at times, and I am not sure if that is the Virginia base or the topping.

This was good and I enjoyed it. It was not interesting enough or punch enough buttons to merit keeping a tin around given the price. It is a 2.5 on the overall rating scale.

When I first started smoking a pipe, I smoked aromatics and that was pretty much all I smoked. As my love for smoking a pipe grew, my curiosities did as well and I started testing the waters with other blends, such as English, Balkan, VAs, etc.- and eventually strayed away from Aromatics, only smoking them occasionally.

I bought a tin of Grousemoor for a couple reasons... because of the mystique that surrounded it, and because at the time it was one of the only blends that wasn't out of stock. I must say all this mystique is for good reason, this is one fantastic blend. I wished I had discovered this sooner. It is thee most unique aromatic I may have ever smoked. In the sense that, the flavor is not something you will find in any other blend that I know of. Lemongrass? Huh? What the hell is that? Whatever it is I really like it. This blend is refreshing, citrusy, slightly floral and sweet. The tobacco is very high quality and it burns very nicely. It does require a few relights, perhaps it needed some more air time. The color is a beautiful golden - yellow, and the scent when the tin pops open reminds me of limoncello, which makes me wonder if there is a hint of alcohol topping on the blend. We will never know for sure however, the word is the recipe is kept secret. It is said that only three people in the company know it's actual contents and this had been the case for over 200 years. The people change, needless to say, but if it has lasted this long, it's liked by many and they just added another person to the list, because I will certainly be buying this again. It is one of very few aromatics that you really get the taste of what it says it is flavored with. In this case lemongrass, which I suppose I like, who knew!